Cosmic Hero: Mythology and History in the Sinnoh Region
by RoosterHelmet
Summary: After more than half a decade spent assisting Professor Rowan, Lucas decides to travel the Sinnoh region in search of meaning. With his Yanma at his side, he finds an untamed land with a rich history, and soon becomes subject to a string of encounters with Pokemon older than the cities he loses himself in. Rated T for mild language and some violence.
1. Prologue-A Night in Veilstone City

Dawn had not changed much in ten years. She was taller. Her hair was longer. Her facial geometries were less exaggerated; sharper, more adult-like. But those characteristics were secondary to the fire in her eyes, the passion that only seemed to burn brighter since I'd last seen her.

The dinner, before I'd seen Dawn, had been a slow one. I talked about research with Rowan and the visiting professor from the Johto region. I explained some of my studies on Burmy's evolution to an uninterested man near the refreshment table. Et cetera. The host claimed it to be the most expensive dinner ever held in Veilstone, and whether or not he was right, it was by far the most lavish I'd ever been to. The room was divided into two halves. The right side was the dining area, designated by tables dressed in red and gold tablecloths and topped with unique silver centerpieces. On the left, a battleground, marked with a gold Poké Ball symbol in the center. The left side was off-limits for now, as a referee in a striped shirt talked to a group of men in suits I identified as the event organizers by the emblems on their jackets. I felt like an imposter. I was never much of a city person, and this was my first time in Veilstone. On top of that, most of the people around me were significantly and visibly richer than I was. I couldn't help but feel like people noticed how out-of-place I felt.

"Lucas? Oh my god, is that you?" Dawn approached me, her salmon-pink gown shimmering under the massive, crystalline chandelier. She wore a string of pearls around her neck. Her bluish-black hair was pulled into a complex up-do, with wavy strands falling to either side of her face. In her hand, she gripped a wineglass like a tennis racket.

I laughed. "Yeah, it is," I said more quietly.

She dropped her voice to my level. "How long has it been? Five years?"

"Six, I think. How have you been?"

"I've been tearing it _up_ since we last saw each other." She sat down across from me and set her wineglass in front of her. She rummaged around in her purse and removed something like a wallet with a Poké Ball symbol on it. She held it up, and it unfurled to reveal four different sets of badges. I recognized Sinnoh's eight, but couldn't identify the others. The bottom-most set was missing the last three badges.

I smiled. "How's your Pokédex coming along? Rowan asks me about it all the time." I imitated his voice, "'Is she finished that damn thing yet?'"

"It's…" Dawn twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, "… coming along. I've been kind of preoccupied with other stuff, anyway. I just got back from the Sevii Islands."

"Did you say hi to my parents?" I asked.

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "I thought about it, but I couldn't remember which one you were from. Also they have no idea who I am."

"Understandable. It's Six, by the way."

"Oh, right! You're Bugs McCool!"

"Speaking of which, do you love Bug Pokémon yet? Have all of your travels expanded your mind?"

Dawn knit her eyebrows. "I'm still not a hundred percent sure if I like Bug Pokémon all that much. Not because I'm creeped out by them, I just think they're kind of weird and not very strong, a lot of the time." She paused. "Sorry."

"Oh, no, I'm not hurt or anything. You're just insulting a part of my soul. It only cuts deeper than any blade ever could."

"Shut up," Dawn laughed.

"But hold on. You like Psychic types, and you think _Bug_ types are too weird?"

Dawn tilted her head. "You don't like Psychic types?"

"I don't trust anything that can read my mind."

Dawn took a sip of her wine, waving her other hand dismissively. "Anyways, how's old Fort Sandgem holding up? Sounds like Professor Rowan misses me really bad."

"Well, I think he's slowly losing his mind. Unlocking the secrets of evolution must be taking a toll on him. But other than that, it's peaceful. Sometimes it's even a little warm outside."

"I don't know how you managed to live in the Sevii Islands. It's _ridiculously_ hot there."

"Dawn?" The unmistakably gruff voice of Professor Rowan came from over my shoulder. I turned to see him towering above me. Despite having worked for the man for the better part of a decade, hearing him without warning made me flinch.

"Professor!" Dawn stood and hugged Rowan, who offered no reaction. Maybe a smile flickered under his white mustache.

"How has your journey treated you?" he asked when Dawn released him.

"It's been so much fun! I've been to Hoenn and Kanto and just, all over the place. I'd show you some of the Pokémon I've caught, but I don't think this is the place to do that."

"And how is your Pokédex coming along?"

"I told you," I murmured. Rowan glared at me.

"Well, it's not… awful," Dawn replied. "I have info for a hundred and seventy-six Pokémon nationally."

"Hm," Rowan said.

"'Hm' as in _I'm-proud-of-you-Dawn_ or 'Hm' as in _unsatisfactory_?" She deepened her voice, attempting to imitate the professor.

"Hm," he repeated.

Dawn looked at me, as if I were somehow more capable of translating. I shrugged.

"I do hope to see more Pokédex entries from you. It was nice seeing you, Dawn, but I was in the middle of a very interesting discussion. I hope to see more Pokédex entries from you." He gave a curt nod, then turned and walked towards a table seated by other professors, including the one from Johto, who almost cowered in Rowan's shadow as he approached the table.

"So," Dawn said. "Is Missy here?"

"No, shes's back in Sandgem," I lamented. "I thought about bringing her, but the Professor says she makes people nervous. I figured I should play it safe." I drank some of my wine. "So, how did you end up getting invited?"

"Huh? Oh. I didn't. I hustled the security guards. I told them if I could beat one of them in a battle, they had to let me in… And then, when that didn't work, I just had Professor Elm vouch for me."

"Ladies, gentlemen." The sound of silverware on glass shushed all conversation. "It is an honor to be dining among the sharpest minds in the world." The host stood at the front of the room, in a silver tuxedo bearing the yellow 'G' of his organization on the breast of the jacket. Cyrus.

Cyrus was a human automaton. His spiky, blue hair was so neatly-combed it almost looked like a wig. He moved with a reserved, calculated grace as he slowly navigated the room and continued his speech. "Team Galactic is dedicating the profits made during tonight's fundraiser to creating a cleaner, better future for mankind and Pokémon alike." The dinner hall filled with muted, respectful applause. Cyrus's face remained stony, unflinching as he waited for his audience to quiet down. "We will be pouring the majority of tonight's donations into our new solar energy research facility in Eterna City. The perfect future can only be achieved with help from generous donors such as yourselves. Please enjoy the rest of the dinner. Exhibition battles will be opening soon, for those interested. Thank you all."

The room applauded again, and Dawn turned to look at me. "There's just something about him," she said.

My face contorted into something ugly. "Please don't tell me you think he's hot."

Dawn wrinkled her nose. "What? No way! It's more like… I think he's cool, and I admire what he's doing."

"Ehh." I leaned towards Dawn on my elbows and murmured, "I don't trust men like him. He talks so much about the perfect future, but he says so little about it. He tells the scholars and the media exactly what they want to hear, but nothing else. What exactly is he researching, and what is it for? Call me crazy, but I can't help but be a little wary of him."

"Yeah, when you talk like that, it's kind of hard to not call you crazy… Or at least, paranoid."

"Tape your webcam," I joked. "He's spying on all of us."

"Attention, dinner-goers!" called a man in a striped shirt, standing next to the battleground. "Exhibition matches are now open! Any trainers interested may now step forward!"

"Oop, that's me." Dawn hopped up, hurrying to one side of the battleground. Opposite her stood a man with dark, graying hair and a turquoise bowtie. Dawn sifted through her purse. She pulled out a Poké Ball, which expanded in her grip. She tossed it and unleashed a brown Pokémon with red, round fists like a kickboxer's gloves. Hitmonchan. Had I not grown up in the Sevii Islands, a region often visited by Kanto citizens, I might not have recognized it. The Pokémon bounced on the tips of its feet and glared, determined, from behind raised fists.

The man with the graying hair sent out a Luxray. Static sparks jumped between the dark spikes of its mane, as it pawed eagerly at the floor. Its tail whipped around in the air behind it.

The trainers and their Pokémon stared one another down, searching for cracks and weak points. Most of the eyes in the dinner hall were now turned to the impending battle, silent save for a few explanatory whispers and murmurings of "What's that brown Pokémon?"

It was Dawn's opponent who made the first move.

"Use Discharge!" he shouted, jabbing his finger forward.

Luxray ran in a circle. Its fur puffed out, bursting with a wave of electricity. Hitmonchan raised his fists, flinching and twitching as the electricity coursed through him, but remaining on its feet. Dawn's hair began to frizz.

Dawn clenched her fists at her sides. "Ice Punch!"

Hitmonchan raised his fists again and charged. Luxray started to run, but it was clear that Hitmonchan was faster. He pulled his fist back as he closed the distance, coating it in frost and jagged ice crystals before slamming it into Luxray's side. The ice crashed to pieces, scattering in shards on the floor as Luxray tumbled to its trainer's feet. It stood a moment later, shaking off the injury and sending sparks flying like a mini fireworks display.

A shadow loomed over me as I watched my old friend battle. I looked up, expecting Rowan but finding Cyrus, his scrutinous gaze on the battle, a glass of white wine between his fingers.

I don't know why I spoke to him, and after all that's happened I wonder if I should have never done so in the first place. "I taught her how to catch Pokémon, you know."

Cyrus turned his head slowly to look down at me. "Do you know who she is?" he asked me. "I don't recall inviting her."

"I do. She's one of the best trainers in the region. She has all of the badges in three regions, and she's working on a fourth." I don't know if I was trying to be her hype man, or challenge Cyrus for her, or what. I couldn't tell how he was taking it. It was impossible to read his facial expression because it didn't change.

After a moment of watching a barrage of Comet Punches from Hitmonchan, Cyrus said, in his frigid voice, "How unfulfilling is it? Battling when victory is the only thing at stake?" I didn't realize he'd been looking for an answer until he stared down at me again.

"Oh. Uhh, I wouldn't really know," I replied. "I'm not a trainer. But there's more to it than victory. There's personal improvement and reputation, too."

"What meaning does _reputation_ have?" He asked the question as if he were genuinely analyzing my statement, combing it for logic. "Dawn will die one day. She will be survived by those who knew her. When they die, she'll be survived by those who know her stories. But they will die, and she will be forgotten."

"What human achievement _isn't_ temporary? Kings built huge palaces in their own honor, and now we dig them out of the sand. People like to think they're important, and that they'll be remembered forever, but no one really will be."

"Then does our existence even matter, in the history of time and space?"

"I don't think the history of time and space matters to us," I said. "We're barely a notch in that timeline."

I finally saw a twinge of something in Cyrus' unrelenting stoicism. Scorn. "What a morbid philosophy." He turned his gaze back to the battleground. "I am not resigned to transience. When my dreams are realized, I will be impossible to forget."


	2. Beach Town

The professor and I returned to Sandgem, and life continued where we left off. Dawn flew back to Johto, assuring me that the Indigo League was her next target and making me promise to keep an eye on the TV. I watched her until she disappeared over the horizon, on the back of a blue, red-winged Dragon I had never seen before.

I thought about her a lot, when I returned to Sandgem. I thought about the places her journey had taken her, about how I'd moved from one corner of the earth to the other without really experiencing anything in-between. I'd transferred from being stationary in one place to being stationary in another. Dawn was crossing seas and climbing mountains and fighting to make a name for herself. That glimpse into her lifestyle made me want more out of my mere existence as a professor's aid. I ignored it at first. I brushed it off as an infatuation with a lifestyle I'd soon realize I could never live. But the more I thought, the more I realized how much I wanted to leave. I realized how many questions I had about the universe and how it came to be, and how unfulfilled and bored I felt.

"Lucas, put Missy away. We're going to have guests in a half an hour."

Missy chirred sadly, zipping from place-to-place as her wings droned. "She won't hurt anyone," I said, in my Yanma's defense. "She's gentle. Besides, those kids who came in a couple of days ago seemed to really love her. I think you might be misjudging your demographic."

"I do remember those children," Rowan said, before taking a long, loud sip of his morning coffee. "Their parents were absolutely thrilled to see a giant Bug lifting their children into the air."

"She's not _that_ big."

"Consider that most people who live in the Sinnoh region don't grow up seeing bugs much larger than their hands." From someone else, it would have been lighthearted, but from Rowan, the statement was stern and final. End of discussion.

I pulled a sunflower seed out of my lab coat pocket and tossed it in the air. Missy whizzed around and caught it and returned to my side in a matter of a second. I returned her to my only Poké Ball and helped Rowan make the lab look presentable.

Evolution was a field as broad as it was deep. The topic either of us might be researching at a given moment could suddenly draw parallels with three other topics, or lend credence to a thirty-year old theory. We tended to drop what we were doing in those eureka moments, and the journals and notebooks would pile up and cover our desks. In Rowan's eyes, the only thing more unsightly than a giant bug flying around was a messy desk.

The guests that day were a young couple from Jubilife named Wendy and David. Wendy was studying to become a Pokémon researcher herself. The dear old professor was more than enthusiastic to give his speech on Evolution.

In short: We don't know _why_ some Pokémon evolve and some don't. It might be an ecological mechanism—Pokémon changing forms to fill roles in their local ecosystems. A Staravia may evolve into a Staraptor to fill a recently vacated top predator spot, or a Combee may evolve into a Vespiquen when the previous hive queen dies. Pokémon like Chatot or Girafarig may not evolve because they fulfill a very specific niche, or because they're already capable of fulfilling several ecological roles as they are. The theory is far from bulletproof, because not all Pokémon evolve on their own. Some Pokémon, like Golbat, only evolve through their friendship with a human. This begs the question: What exactly is the connection between humans and Pokémon?

The other major branch of Evolutionary biology, and my personal favorite, has more to do with the process itself rather than its purpose. Pokémon give off some kind of energy when they evolve. On a graph, this energy is very similar to the background cosmic energy of the universe, left over from its beginning. One theory states that Pokémon completely rearrange every physical aspect of themselves when they evolve. If that's true, it's possible that Pokémon access the same energies present during the creation of the universe. How much can we learn about the primordial universe by studying Pokémon evolution?

Wendy was thrilled by the lecture. Even David, who hadn't seemed as interested, was listening intently by the end. Rowan may have spoken as dryly as a desert, but he knew how to make his presentations interesting. They stayed for a few minutes after the tour, with Wendy asking the professor a few questions. I asked David if he wanted to meet Missy, but Rowan caught wind and shut me down.

When they left, the lab went back to its usual quiet. The professor worked at his computer, while I examined samples of different Burmy coats under a microscope. The only sounds in the room were the whirring of Missy's wings, and the old desk fan Rowan had sitting beside his monitor.

"So, Professor…"

"You only call me 'Professor' when you want something." Rowan didn't stop typing as he spoke. "What is it?"

"Well, I've been… thinking about some things, since we went to that fundraiser in Veilstone." I'd been steeling myself to ask this for a few days, and now that I stood here actually asking, I was nervous. My mouth was dry. Rowan wasn't a rude man, but he was a blunt one.

"As have I. Cyrus emailed me expressing interest in my research. I'm considering a partnership with him."

"That's great," I lied. "But… I've been thinking about other stuff. You know, where everything came from, what happens after we die. Stuff like that. I realized I don't really have any answers, but I want to find some. I want to see the rest of Sinnoh."

The professor raised his bushy, white eyebrows. "You want to become a Pokémon trainer?"

"I don't think I have what it takes to be a trainer. I just want to see some ruins and study mythology in places that aren't here for a while. I have so many questions."

The professor scratched his chin. "The Sinnoh region is a good place for people who have questions. But it's also rugged and unforgiving. Don't commit to such an undertaking unless you know you're capable of handling it."

"This is what I want to do. I've never been surer of anything in my life."

"Hm. I think it's a good idea."

"… You do? You… you really do?!" My reply was a mixture of excitement and disbelief. I was worried for a moment I was embarrassing myself, before deciding I didn't care.

"Of course. Everyone deserves a chance to find themselves. You may as well do it while you're young. Besides, you wouldn't be much used to me with your head in the clouds all day."

I shrugged. "That's a good point. I don't know if you noticed, but I've had my head up there since we got back."

"I have."

"When can I leave?"

"Tomorrow, if it pleases you. I'll pay you during the first two weeks. It's the least I can do to make up for your years of assistance."

"Oh my god, thank you so much."

"You're welcome. And if I might recommend a heritage site, the Canalave library is an excellent place to find what you're looking for."

Missy buzzed all around the room, flinging papers into the air as she celebrated. I tried to catch as many as I could before Rowan changed his mind. I could tell she didn't love being confined to a small laboratory all day, and the prospect of being able to fly in the open air must have been exciting. When we lived on Six Island, she'd spent most of her time outside. But, Sinnoh often got too cold for her. And, as much as I hate to admit it, Professor Rowan was right, and people in this corner of Sinnoh were often scared of Bug Pokémon as big as she is.

I woke up early the following morning. Too early, I decided, considering my new lifestyle. I no longer needed structure. I deleted my alarm settings before leaving my loft in the Sandgem lab, more a symbolic gesture than anything else. I said a few goodbyes around town, to Dawn's parents, to the next door neighbors, and to Patrick the Poké Mart clerk after buying a few supplies. Then, finally, I said goodbye to Professor Rowan.

"Keep in touch," he said, clapping a huge, rough hand on my shoulder.

"I'll be sure to," I said. "I think I'm going to do what you recommended and go to Canalave first."

"Good idea." Rowan's hand fell back to his side. "I look forward to hearing about your travels. You've been an excellent assistant. Come back with all of your limbs attached."

"What about my fingers?"

"Optional." Rowan was not a man who showed much emotion, and this instance was no different. His facial expression didn't change, but the only time I'd ever heard him use sarcasm was when he was trying to pretend he had no emotions. I was touched, as strange as it might sound.

Stepping onto the road towards Jubilife felt less monumental than I thought it would. Even as it shrank into the horizon behind Missy and I, disappearing into the pine trees, I found it hard to feel anything. I expected to feel invigorated or alive, or even hollow or regretful. But all I felt was the cool midmorning breeze.

Jubilife was a city I was tired of seeing. I visited it a handful of times a year, and only when I absolutely had to. It was too congested. I never felt like I had enough breathing room in downtown Jubilife, like everyone and everything was closing in on me. I made my way to the ferry services and took a boat to Canalave, sparing as little time as possible. After sitting in a lobby for fifteen minutes at the harbor, I boarded the ship to Canalave.

The sky was cloudless, the wind tinted with sea salt. I stood leaning on the railing of the ship, one hand on my magenta hat to prevent the breeze from taking it. I watched schools of Finneon swim around the ferry, their fins glowing like stars in a Six Island night sky. That was when I felt alive. I felt more alive than anyone else on the planet. The world around me was sparking with intrigue, with answers to all of my questions.

But in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder how long the romance would last.


	3. Adventures in Exorcism

Canalave was not like Jubilife.

Jubilife was neat and organized. Canalave was a loose, nearly haphazard collection of buildings bound to the canal and harbor splitting the city into two halves. I found the library on the western half.

The building was old, all refurbished, repainted wood, and split into two floors. The first floor was the same as any modern library, stocked with modern books and sporting a coffee shop in the back corner. I didn't spend much time there. I ordered coffee for myself and a biscuit for Missy, then skimmed through a Sinnoh travel guide. I'd had a general knowledge of the Sinnoh region's major cities, but I wrote down a few notes and places of interest. The second floor was the reason I was in Canalave in the first place. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed with old books. Compilations of folklore and myths, old scientific journals, and chronicles of Sinnoh history. I found myself drawn to the mythology. A few stories in particular caught my attention:

The first was a description of three spirits who granted humans the virtues of Knowledge, Emotion, and Willpower before diving into three different lakes. I was somewhat familiar with this myth. Not far from Sandgem was Lake Verity, where people had reported seeing a shimmering mirage appear over the water at night.

The second, a collection of folktales about interactions between humans and Pokémon. One involved a man with a sword, who was confronted by a Pokémon when he used the sword to kill. The Pokémon, after showing the man the error of his ways, disappeared to an 'unseen place.' Another was a story of a time when humans and Pokémon ate at the same table or even married one another.

Finally, the story I found most intriguing. It began by describing the primitive universe as a swirling chaos, from which an egg tumbled. The egg hatched a being (referred to in the text as 'The Original One') who shaped the cosmos with its one thousand hands before falling into a deep slumber.

As I read, I noticed a handsome man pacing the floor of the library. He was rugged, with shaggy, burgundy hair and stubble. Dark circles ringed his eyes. He seemed out of place in a library. He was muscular, and wearing a white tank top and tan pants that were worn ragged at the cuffs.

I yawned as I closed my last book. Spending the day travelling and researching had done their damage on me. I realized I'd need somewhere to stay, unless I wanted to go all the way back to Sandgem.

The burgundy-haired man walked past me, fingers drumming anxiously on his leg. He walked past me and scanned the spines of the books on the mythology shelf with those tired eyes. I stood up to put my book back. He stood next to me, his eyes blank and gazing at nothing in particular as I placed the book where I'd found it. He wobbled on his feet, as if he were about to tip over.

"Excuse me," I said. "Are you okay?"

The man jumped and his bloodshot eyes widening. His eyelids drooped down again and he took in a deep breath and sighed, "Sorry. I'm fine. Just haven't been sleeping much. No one in my house has. We keep having nightmares. Well, the same nightmare, really..."

"Your family is having the same dream?" I asked. "Is it reoccurring?"

"It's the only thing I ever see when I close my eyes. Over and over again, something I can't see is watching me and it's slowly cornering me. I can't move. Can't do anything."

"It could be a Gastly eating your dreams. That's what it sounds like to me. Maybe a Haunter, even, if it's been this long."

"I know a thing or two about Dream Eaters," the man said. "And this ain't them." He cleared his throat. "Before this conversation goes any further, my name is Byron. I'm the Gym Leader here."

"Oh. I had no idea, sir. I didn't mean to come off as condescending—"

Byron held up a hand. "No need to throw around 'sirs' or anything like that. Just call me Byron."

"My bad. While we're at it, my name is Lucas. I'm Professor Rowan's assistant. If you've ever seen him on TV, I'm the person who's usually standing behind him and to the left."

"I knew I took you for some kind of scholarly type." He covered his mouth with his hand while he yawned.

"Well, I _am_ in a library of my own volition…"

"Go easy on me, kid. I've been awake for forty-six hours. Anyway, back to what we were talking about. I'm not convinced this is any old Dream Eater. I think it's something a little more sinister. When I'm having the nightmare, I can't wake up from it. Normally I can just pinch myself and wake up in my bed. But the nightmares don't _end_ until whatever's watching me decides they do."

"Hm," I said, touching a finger to my chin and looking up at the ceiling in contemplation. I nodded. "How about I try to find something on it? I research Pokémon for a living. Go home and try to unwind, and if I find anything, I'll come and tell you."

Byron smiled. Every muscle in his body (and there were many) relaxed. "Thanks, son. I'll be at the Canalave Gym if you want to find me."

"Which I can find at…?"

It took him a second to register my question, or maybe that I had even asked him a question in the first place. "Oh, yeah. I guess you're not from around here," he said, then wrote down the address and was gone.

The Canalave library was, unfortunately, mostly unhelpful. The few exorcism manuals only detailed basic methods and tricks for dispelling common ghosts—watch for the shadows moving along the floor and walls, intimidate them with a stronger Pokémon, hang a hexed tag on your doorknob—but nothing on more powerful or explicitly malevolent hauntings. The majority of Ghost Pokémon haunt humans because they're hungry, not because they want to terrorize them. While much of this information was new to me, it must not have been much use to Byron. I also decided that if he had been looking in the mythology section, of all places, he must have already read these books and found nothing. If I had looked here first, he must have as well. As I exited the library, I wracked my brain for resources I could utilize. Explanations I may have overlooked. I also considered that my eyelids were getting increasingly hard to keep open.

* * *

"I must have spent…" I shook my head lazily, "… two hours researching nightmares in there. Nothing." I supported myself by leaning my elbows on the video phone desk. The clock was pushing 12 AM, and the Pokémon Center was mostly deserted. The bright lights and the LCD screen I'd been staring at stung my eyes. I slurped some of my ice coffee through the straw, impatiently waiting for the caffeine rush. Missy was sleeping on the sofa beside me, her head nestled on one of the pillows.

On the video screen, Professor Rowan scratched his chin. Rowan was always up late, overworking and pacing the floor. I knew I could count on him being awake. "That's very strange. Ghost Pokémon don't often stalk humans at all. Let alone in their dreams."

"I _know_ ," I said. "I'm not sure what to do."

"I can ask the other professors what they know, but I can't guarantee it will be much. Or anything, for that matter."

"I would appreciate it, thanks."

"And you know, Byron and his family being unable to sleep does nothing to prevent _you_ from going to bed."

"I'd love to," I replied, "but I want to help him. I want to at least give him _some_ sign that I'm on the right path to figuring this thing out."

"Mhm. I see. Good luck, Lucas." The Professor hung up after that. In typical Rowan fashion, no goodbye. I'd wanted to tell him some other things about my experience so far, like the myths I'd read and the towns I'd planned on visiting next. Regardless, I shrugged it off and finished the granola bar that constituted my midnight snack, promising myself I'd eat a big breakfast in the morning. Although, at this rate, I wouldn't have been surprised if I woke up in the afternoon. After drinking the rest of my coffee, I woke Missy up and left the Pokémon Center.

The night was chilly and moonless. A flock of Wingull flew overhead as steam rose up from boats docked in the harbor. Even this late at night, when the streets were mostly vacant, the docks buzzed with sailors loading and unloading cargo. I drew stares from a few, either because of how hideously out of place I was, or because of the 83 pound Bug flying beside me. I avoided eye contact, but searched for sailors who weren't obviously in the middle of something. I reached the edge of the docks, where I found a cluster of men sitting on a concrete barrier overlooking the canal. They each had brown paper bags beside them, and were lost in their late night meals.

I approached the man furthest to the right. "Excuse me."

"Hm?" he asked from under a mouthful of sandwich. He swallowed and said, "Can I help you with something?"

"Um, yes, actually. I'm trying to help Byron with something." I stepped out of the way of a sailor carrying a wooden crate.

The sailor narrowed his eyes, his square jaw shifting. "Byron? Oh, Gym Leader Byron?"

"That's the one." I tried to make myself likeable to this man, but I felt every gesture and word of mine only further soured his impression of me. "Would you know anything about people being stalked by Pokémon in their dreams? Is that maybe something you've heard anything about?"

The sailor narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth and said, "Doesn't sound like anything I'd know about. Sorry."

"Wait a minute," said the sailor two men down from the one I was talking to. I looked in his direction to see him leaning forward. "People gettin' stalked by Pokémon in their sleep? I know a guy who might be able to point you in the right direction."

"You do?" I asked with more energy than I thought I had.

He set half of a submarine sandwich in his lap and turned, pointing a finger across the canal to a house at the opposite side's edge. "There's a fella named Eldritch, lives in that house over there. He just got off his shift. If you're quick, you can catch him before he goes to sleep. I remember him tellin' me somethin' about Pokémon nightmares at some point or another."

"Thanks a lot," I said. "Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

"Yeah, you can get that Bug away from us." I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, but after thanking him again, I left for Eldritch's house.

Times like these, I wished Missy were strong enough to carry me. Eldritch living on the other side of the canal meant a twenty minute walk in a giant U, walking to the north end of the canal to get to cross the drawbridge, then walking all the way back down to his house. Canalave was not an easy city to navigate. The infrastructure layout plan had clearly been improvisation. Canalave was an older city, built in a time before anyone knew cities could become so large and complex. Many of the streets wound in unexpected directions. It was difficult to stay on major roads without accidentally taking detours onto dead end streets. If my destination hadn't been overlooking the canal, I might not have been able to find it.

The first floor lights were still on when I arrived at Eldritch's doorstep. I knocked on his door and waited under the yellow light emanating from the lamp above the door.

A burly man in an old t-shirt opened the door. He wasn't much taller than I was, but he still dwarfed me. "What do you want?" he asked, scratching drearily behind his ear.

"My name is Lucas. I'm Professor Rowan's assistant. I'm trying to help Byron's family, and I was told you might know something about Pokémon who trap people in nightmares."

Eldritch raised his eyebrows. " _Gym Leader_ Byron?"

"Yes," I said, "Gym Leader Byron." I had always assumed everyone knew exactly who you were talking about when you said the name of a Leader, but I was clearly being proven wrong.

"Come in," he said, opening the door wider. "And try to be quiet. My son has school tomorrow."


	4. Black

**Hey, everyone! Sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter. I started a new job recently. I work weird hours, and I've been struggling to manage the little free time I have now. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, though. As always, thanks for reading!**

* * *

Eldritch's house was nearly quiet, save for the TV, which quietly aired the JLKV late night report and filled the downstairs with soft, shifting light. I reviewed my notes as I sat at Eldritch's kitchen table. I realized, reading over them, how poorly-done they were. Past Lucas had not written notes as comprehensively as he thought he had. Eldritch was in the kitchen, boiling a pot of tea and murmuring the lyrics to an old sea shanty about being a long way away from home.

An unnatural noise, like a broken brass instrument, rumbled from somewhere in the distance, hung for a second, and then echoed away. I thought I felt the ground shake ever-so-gently, but I can't say for sure that I wasn't imagining it.

I knit my eyebrows, and when the noise faded, I said, "… Did you hear that?"

"Sure did," said Eldritch, gazing out the little window in the kitchen.

"Was… that a ship?"

"It didn't sound all that much like a ship. It was too far off. And in the wrong direction. It sounded like it came from the east. If that was true, it'd be right next to us."

"Right."

"Can I get you something to drink?" offered Eldritch.

"Are you making enough tea for two?"

"For sure." The sailor entered the kitchen, leaving the pot to boil. "So, where 'ya from?" he asked as he lowered himself into his chair. "You know what? Dumb question. You're Rowan's aid. You're from Sandgem, right?"

"Not a dumb question, actually. I'm from Six Island."

He wrinkled his nose. "And you moved to _Sinnoh_?"

"Not my first choice, climate-wise. But I came here specifically because the Professor offered me a position after reading some of my notes about the Pokémon that lived in Pattern Bush. Which, don't think I'm a prodigy or something. The moment he was comfortable doing it, he pointed out _tons_ of ways to improve my writing and note-taking."

"I'll be damned. Good stuff. You have any Pokémon of your own?"

"One. I have a Yanma."

"Really, now? One of those big red things? They give me the creeps."

I sighed, wishing someone on this chunk of frozen mud appreciated Bug Pokémon. "So, uh, not to rush straight to the point here, but can you tell me anything about Pokémon and nightmares?"

Silence practically became the third person in the room. The only sound was Jenny Norito's coverage of a convenience store robbery allegedly committed by two men with green bowl cuts. Eldritch cleared his throat, but before he could speak, the teapot started hissing. He looked relieved. He said, "Oh, tea's on," and then went and poured the tea into two mugs. He sat back down, placing the fancier of the two mugs in front of me. It was crimson ceramic, and covered in traditional artwork etched in gold.

"Thank you," I said, sipping the tentatively and burning my lip.

"So," said Eldritch, "I know a thing or two about Byron's Pokémon problem."

"What is it?"

"I've had something like it happen to me." Eldritch took a long, borderline-superhuman sip of his tea. "It must've been… what, six or seven years ago? My son falls asleep one night and won't wake up. I try damn near everything I can think of to wake him up, but nothing works. He just keeps shaking and talking about something watching him.

"Sailors are a superstitious bunch. Ask any of us. Travelling all around the world opens your mind, I think. You see all kinds of stuff you don't see walking around on land like most folks do. So, one of my sailor buddies tells me one day about an island north of here. He says there's a Pokémon who lives there that can wake people up from bad dreams.

"So, I go to the Poké Mart and buy me some Poké Balls, so I can catch this thing and help my son. I sail up to the island. Not far. Maybe a twelve hour trip, there and back? I disembark and… the Pokémon's nowhere to be found. But…" Eldritch walked to the cupboard in the living room. He opened it and pulled out a glass bottle with a shimmering green feather resting at the bottom. He brought it back to the table and placed it in the center, particles of sparkling dust settling inside of it. "I find this. I figure I'll take it. It's pretty, and when this blows over, I can give it to my son for show and tell, or something. And, wouldn't you believe it, the moment I bring it in the door, he wakes up!"

"So, what you're saying," I said, internal clock begging for mercy, "is that I need to go to the island and find a feather like that one."

Eldritch took another sip of his tea and stared at the feather. "Frankly, if you want this one, you can have it. I think that Pokémon knows it's not welcome here. It's been years, now."

"Do you know anything about what Pokémon it was?"

He shook his head. "Can't say I do, sorry. All I know is that it was strong. Just being near my son made me shiver."

"And are you sure you want me to take that? I don't want to indirectly invite the Pokémon back into your home. Maybe we could cut it in half, or—"

"It's no big deal. I wouldn't wanna risk it not working anymore."

"Hmm. That's a good point…"

Eldritch pushed the bottle towards me. "Go on, you can have it. I insist."

"Well, thank you. I'll make sure Byron knows how much of a help you were."

Eldritch laughed. "Tell him I say it's been a while!"

I left Eldritch's house and made the short walk to the Canalave Gym. My eyes stung from the brightness of the fluorescent lights in the lobby. I was greeted by a muffled boom, followed by the sound of crumbling rock hitting the floor. I walked down the hall and into the challenge hall, where I found Byron. A huge Steelix, one of the biggest Pokémon I'd seen I my life, stood beside him, reared up to attack a crumbling boulder in front of it. Byron extended his arm towards it. The Steelix moved slowly, lumbering forward and bringing its massive head down onto its target, its jaw and the bits of steel protruding from its underside pulverizing the stone like a dirt clod.

"Byron!" I shouted, my voice coarse from exhaustion. Steelix slowly turned its head to stare at me, and maybe it was the exhaustion that convinced me that I was closer to dying than I had ever been.

Byron held a hand up, and the beast relaxed. "Did you find something?"

I approached him and retrieved the bottle with the feather from my backpack. "I talked to a sailor named Eldritch who said his had a similar problem to yours. He said that feather woke him up when he brought it into his house."

"Eldritch, huh?" Byron hefted the bottle, examining the feather inside with his tired, baggy eyes. "It's been the better half of a decade since I talked to that guy. You think this'll work, huh?"

"I believe him," I said.

"Mm. Assuming I'm thinking of the same guy, me too. Why don't you go catch some shut-eye, son? You've done good."

"Thanks," I sighed. "If it doesn't work, just let me know tomorrow, and I'll—"

"No, it's fine, son. Just get some rest. You did plenty. Any way I can make it up to you?"

"Don't worry about it. I just need to go to bed."

After leaving Canalave gym, I walked back towards the Pokémon Center, where I assumed I'd find hotels. There were none. I asked around town, wandered a bit, and finally found rest in a small local inn. The inside hadn't been updated in decades, I thought, or it was intentionally old-fashioned. The lobby was mostly open space, with a small, dark wood reception desk, manned by the sole person in the lobby.

"I'd like one night, please," I said.

He looked up at me from his paperback. "We don't usually book people after midnight," he said. He had a thick accent from somewhere I couldn't place. He laughed to himself a bit, "But I'd be a rude host to turn away a weary traveler such as yourself."

"If it's too much trouble," I said, "I can find somewhere else."

The receptionist stuck a folded sheet of paper in his book and dropped it on the counter. "No, really, I wouldn't turn you away! In fact, there's a bed up there, all made and ready for you. I insist." His mouth twisted into a grin. I wondered if he thought he was being charming. If maybe he'd used that grin for years, and no one had ever gathered the courage to tell him it was unsettling.

"Okay, well, if you insist. How much do you want?"

"Oh, no, it's on the house. You clearly need your rest. By all means, get it!"

I put my wallet back in my pocket. "… If you're sure."

"I insist!" He seemed deeply unnatural to me. Maybe I was tired, but his body language and his speech seemed rehearsed, like an imitation of how a person should act learned from how-to videos. Regardless, I accepted his offer and went upstairs to my room. The Harbor Inn was small enough that the rooms weren't numbered. I was staying on the last room in the left hallway on the second floor.

My room was cramped, with a portion of the wall jutting out to make room for the shower. The towels were hastily folded, and one of them had fallen off the rack when I first entered the bathroom. The bed was snug, but the sheets were too smooth. Or, that was what I thought, until I passed out.

* * *

The place I stood in only nominally resembled a place. I stood on something that resembled the ground. My surroundings were a churning, dark purple chaos. I could have sworn I saw the shapes of hands and fingers in the swirling patterns, but when I focused on them, they vanished. I was dreaming, I realized. Everything I felt and saw seemed to match the description Byron and Eldritch had given to me.

It was watching me.

I was curious. I wanted to know more about the nightmare Pokémon, and how it operated. If its nightmares were based on the host's own fears, or if it was a catch-all nightmare it used. I wondered _why_ it gave people nightmares, and why it seemed to like terrorizing them so much.

There was a figure not far off, but far enough that I didn't notice it at first. A monochrome human form curled up and sitting on the ground. I walked forward, lurching and dizzy. I couldn't feel my heartbeat. I couldn't really feel my own body at all.

The figure was completely motionless, about my size. They didn't even seem to be breathing. They looked up at me. Their face was yellow. Too yellow to be natural. Their face was vaguely human, the eyes and mouth somehow larger than they should be. Their expression was somewhere between neutral and nervous.

They were gone suddenly, with no explanation. They were not the one watching me. That was something beyond what I could see. My surroundings slowly formed into something that looked like a forest, still roiling and turning. I looked down at my hands to see them blending with my surroundings, like paint in water. I ignored it and walked into the forest.

Telling myself it was all a dream was starting to wear off. My mind was actively turning against me. I saw more of the people with the uncanny faces out of the corner of my eye, but couldn't see one directly. I heard a boy's echoing laughter, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. I made the mistake of wondering how long it would be until I woke up.

A dark circle sat at the floor of the forest, black coils rising up from it and disappearing into the air. I approached the circle, shaking. I wasn't curious anymore. I didn't want to know anything about how it worked or why it was there. I only approached it because I hoped it might get me to wake up faster.

Something slowly emerged from the circle. Darkness dripped off its frame as it emerged, its frigid blue eye staring at me. Its body was as black as the shadow it had emerged from. Black shadows trailed from its shoulders, and something like white steam rose from its head. A jagged, red shape encircled its small head. It made a noise. Something between rumbling and static.

I'm not sure if it was out of fear or desperation, but I spoke. "Why are you doing this to people?"

The creature didn't reply. I was paralyzed under its gaze. It didn't blink. The pupil of its eye jumped around, but kept its focus on me. Its crooked fingers flexed idly at its side.

"We never did anything to you! Leave us alone!"

Even looking at its shape and trying to comprehend it filled me with fear. The kind of irrational fear you don't even realize is irrational. I felt like a kid being afraid of the monster under my bed. Only, that monster had paralyzed me and was now sizing me up for its next meal.

"Just let me wake up. I don't even know what you are!" I didn't know if the creature could understand me, or even hear me. I realized it probably wasn't going to kill me. If Eldritch's son had spent what sounded like days being stalked by it, and Byron's family had spent at least a week, it would have killed them by then. But logic didn't work for me, in front of this living nightmare. I couldn't convince myself to calm down, to feel anything other than primal fear.

The creature raised its arm slowly and extended one of its three fingers at me. I lost my center of balance. I fell backwards. When the back of my head hit the ground, I was in my bed again.

* * *

I sighed. My limbs still felt heavy, but I was back in my bed, and it was still dark. Someone was playing an old, slowed-down vaudeville song downstairs. I tried to sit up, but my limbs were too heavy to move.

It was then that I saw the beast floating at the door. It drifted towards me slowly, its form rippling like it was blowing in the breeze in the windless bedroom. I felt sweat coursing down my foreheat. My chest burned with urgency. The creature made that awful noise again. It levitated above my bed and gazed down at me.

It lunged.

* * *

I was in my bed again. Sunlight shined through the thin, red curtains. My heart was pounding. I could move again. A foghorn sounded from the harbor. I sat up and rested my head in my hands and convinced myself I still wanted to do this whole travelling thing. This was exactly the kind of hardship I didn't trust myself to wade through, but I knew I had to force myself to. The voice in the back of my mind insisted that this was forever. I wouldn't be able to sleep because that monster would always be there. I ignored it. I gathered my things and left as quickly as I could. There was no one behind the counter, so I left without checking out. They'd probably figure it out when they came back.

I went to the Pokémon Center and called Professor Rowan. He picked up after a few rings.

"Professor," I said as soon as I could see him on the screen. "I have a lot to catch you up on."

"Oh, hi, Lucas. It's a surprise to see you. I'd stopped expecting you."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Rowan craned his neck forward and raised his eyebrows. "I haven't heard from you in four days."


	5. Introduction to Paleontology

Professor Rowan was understanding of my predicament, and curious about my encounter with the nightmare monster. He took notes as I told him what happened.

"If you want to come back to the lab and rest for a night or two, you're more than welcome to," Rowan said.

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "I'm going to keep at it. I'll admit I'm a little shaken, but I'm not letting it stop me."

"Hm. Maybe you could see what Dawn is doing, and maybe she could escort you."

"I don't need to be escorted. I have Missy. She's protection enough."

"Hm." Rowan scratched the stubble on his chin. "I question your reasoning, but trust your judgment."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"You just woke up from a four-day coma, one that some might consider a near death experience, and you—who, need I remind you, are _not_ a trainer—insist you don't need anyone to protect you."

"I don't need protection. This isn't much of an adventure. I'm just doing some sightseeing and reading some books."

The Professor stared at me for a second, his chin rested on his knuckle. "If you insist. Where are you headed next?"

"I'm thinking Oreburgh," I said, staring up at the map of Sinnoh on the wall. "I'm in the mood for some natural history."

"Oreburgh, eh?" Rowan took a drink from his '#2 PROFESSOR' mug. "If you do go there, could you do something for me? You would be compensated for your help."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's really not much. I would like you to find me a fossil."

"A fossil? That's it?"

"Essentially. And when you do, take it to the Paleontology Center and give it to a man named Hal. He's an old colleague of mine."

I leaned back in the chair. "Sure, I can do that. What is it for?"

"Hal is working on a very experimental method of studying Pokemon who lived in the past. That's all I can tell you."

"I thought after six years of being your assistant, I'd have _some_ level of clearance when it comes to things like this."

Rowan feigned sympathy. "I'm afraid not."

I took the ferry back to Jubilife. I didn't find much of a reason to stay in Jubilife. There wasn't much history there. It had been built at the intersection of four different cities, with the intent of being a commercial center. I'd also been there on more than a few occasions since I'd moved to Sinnoh, so I figured if there was something there for me to discover, I'd already know where to find it. And if I _did_ find out I overlooked something, I could always stop there on my way back home. I'd have to pass through there anyway.

I took the bus from one end of the city to the other, and got off at the city limits. Because Jubilife had been so meticulously planned before it had been built, the entire city existed on a slab of rock that had been carved out of the mountainside. There was a clear border between the city and the surrounding countryside.

Case in point, Route 203 was a quiet woodland path. The brown mountain that hid Oreburgh City rose over the pine trees. Missy and I stopped to sit at a small pond that sparkled under the midday sun. I ate a granola bar for lunch, and fed Missy a poffin. Poffin baking was one of the more recent hobbies I'd taken up. I wasn't good at it. Missy didn't really notice, though. She was happy to eat anything that smelled like food and fit between her mandibles.

"Hey, man!" I turned to see a kid, probably no older than eleven or twelve, walking towards me. She wore a baseball cap with a black and white feather pin above the visor. Her denim jeans were caked in mud, and her tennis shoes squished in the grass as she walked.

"Hey," I said, scanning myself and trying to figure out what I had dropped or forgotten about. "What's up?"

"Nothing," she said. "I just wanted to tell you that your Bug is totally cool."

"Oh," I said, Missy smiling and raising her forelegs, "Thanks. Her name is Missy."

"Are you from Pastoria City?" she asked. "I hear they got lots of big Bugs in the Great Marsh down there."

"No, I'm from Six Island. There are lots of big Bugs there, too. Do you like Bugs?""

"Oh, wow. And yeah, Bugs are cool. I like Flying Types best, though." She pointed to the feather pin.

"That's cool," I said. "Are you a trainer?"

"Yup! I've been one for two weeks. I wanna travel around the world, but my parents make me stay around here."

"Don't worry, I'm sure once you get strong enough, they'll let you go wherever you want." Missy buzzed around, chirping and doing loops in the air to show off to her new fan.

She shrugged. "I dunno, man. They told me she'd never let me do that. _But_ , they also told me they'd never let me have a Pokemon, so…"

"You'll get there," I said.

"Are you a trainer? How long have you been doing it?" she looked along the shore and picked up a few smooth, oval-shaped rocks.

"Oh, I'm not a trainer," I said. "I'm a scientist. Sort of. I'm going to Oreburgh to research fossils."

"That's cool!" the girl skipped a rock across the pond. "I learned about that stuff in school, but I'm sure you already know everything I do."

"You'd be surprised," I said. "I learn new things every day, from all sorts of people. I'm about to go read fairy tales on the internet to see if I can learn anything new from them."

"That's funny," the girl said as she skipped another rock. "Being a scientist sounds fun."

"It's pretty fun," I said. "Being a Pokemon trainer sounds fun."

"It's a lot tougher than it seems," said the girl. She skipped her third and last rock across the pond. "But I love my Pokemon!"

"Keep at it," I said. "My friend started off like you, and now she's one of the strongest trainers in the world."

"Cool! Tell her I said hi next time you see her!" she glanced down at the watch around her wrist. "Oh, shoot, it's lunch time! I gotta go home. See ya, mister scientist."

A few minutes after the young trainer left, Missy and I continued down Route 203. I realized that although I had been asleep for four days, I was exhausted and paranoid. I kept my eyes on the shadows under the trees. I kept thinking I saw them moving or following me. I ordered Missy to attack a tree after a pinecone fell out of it. I told myself I'd book a nice hotel in Oreburgh and sleep as much as I could that night. The idea of sleeping admittedly made me uneasy. I assumed the Nightmare Pokemon had left me, but I had no real way of knowing. I was also tired enough that I was willing to take my chances as soon as my head hit a soft surface.

Route 203 led up an incline, then into the side of a mountain through a cave called Oreburgh Gate. The cave was rugged, a hastily carved tunnel from one end of the mountain to the other, marked by a stone archway at the entrance. The cave smelled of earth. Dripping water echoed from somewhere deeper inside.

A dark mass descended from the cave ceiling in a flurry of flapping and hissing. A colony of Zubats swarmed me in a hurricane of fangs and purple wings. I fell to the floor shouting, "Missy!" as I felt the Zubats try to bite me, their fangs only scratching my skin as I struggled. I swatted at them with my arms, but there were too many. I was engulfed in a cacophony of screeching.

There was a buzzing sound, then a loud crack before the world fell silent.

The silence soon gave way to a ringing in my ear. Several of the Zubats fell out of the sky. They squirmed on the floor of the cavern before frantically waving their wings and fleeing with the rest of their colony. I sat up to see Missy hovering over me, chasing away the straggling Zubats. I taught her Sonicboom for situations exactly like this.

Once I could hear again, I stood on my feet and dusted myself off. "Thanks, Missy," I said, taking a poffin out of my bag and tossing it in her direction. We were out of the Gate soon after, the mining town of Oreburgh sprawling below us. On the northern end of town, museums, and factories breathing trails of white smoke. The further south the city reached, the more improvisational and ramshackle it got. At the very southern end was the mouth of a mine with conveyor belts fed through either side. I followed Route 203 until it disappeared into the town, then headed for the Paleontology Center.

The Oreburgh Paleontological Research Center wasn't hard to find. One of its walls was covered in a mural depicting ancient-looking Pokemon and various other ancient wildlife. A group of Starly were fighting over a bag of fast food out front. I returned Missy to her Poke Ball and walked inside. The interior had shiny, black tile floors and dark brown walls. I approached the man at the front counter and asked to see Hal.

"Sure thing! One second…" The man dialed an extension on his phone and nestled the handset between his shoulder and face. After a few seconds, his jaw shifted and he looked around the room awkwardly. He placed the phone back on the receiver. "Sorry, I guess he's not in right now."

"Oh, that's okay. Do you know when he might be back?"

The receptionist tilted his head and raised his shoulder. "There's really no telling with him."

"Oh. That's okay."

The receptionist put on his customer service voice once again, "But while you're in the area, we do offer free admission to the Oreburgh Mine! Why not take a tour?"

"I'll… consider it, actually."

"Great! Just head straight south. It's very hard to miss!"

Historically, I have been very bad at navigating cities. I grew up in a small town on a small island, and then spent the next six years of my life in a tiny beach town. I had no street smarts. As I walked out of the OPRC, I expected to get lost. But, Oreburgh was a city that allowed itself to breathe. The streets and sidewalks were wide and lazy. The buildings were short and well-spaced. The town had previously been a planned mining colony, and as a result, the streets were uniform and easy to navigate.

I arrived at the entrance to the Oreburgh Mine when the sun was starting to sink below the mountains west of town. My feet hurt. My eyelids were heavy. I'd been walking so much lately, and the only rest I'd had was in the form of a monster-induced coma. I remembered I still needed to find a hotel. I wouldn't stay at the Mine for too long. I just wanted to get a feel for fossil hunting so I could find one tomorrow.

I entered the mine, walking down a series of descending staircases lit by yellow lamps strung along the walls. I scanned the ceiling for colonies of Zubats, but there were none. I reminded myself that Oreburgh Mine was open to the public, and that they probably didn't like lawsuits. The mine eventually split off into two paths, marked by different-colored arrows pointing down them. I chose the blue one, on the left. The tunnel was winding and haphazard, with rocks littering the floor. I wasn't sure where to start looking for fossils. Did I need a pickaxe? Would they let some junior scientist loose in a public attraction swinging a pickaxe at the walls that hold it up? Would they change their mind if I pulled the Professor's Aid Card and said it was for science?

A beam of light cut through the cave, casting my shadow on the wall ahead. I turned to see a man in overalls, with shaggy hair and dusty glasses. His posture was slightly crooked. He waved a big flashlight around in his hand. The overalls were too big for his lanky frame, like he was borrowing them from someone else.

"Are you Lucas?" he asked.

"… Yeah…" I said, squinting and shielding my eyes from the flashlight. "I am. Hi."

He approached me, taking wide steps in his big overalls, and reached out to shake my hand. "My name is Hal."

"Oh, Hal," I said, shaking his hand while blinking tears out of my eyes. "It's, uh, nice to meet you. The Professor told me about you."

"I'm sure he did." Hal released my hand and directed the flashlight beam at the floor. "He's very interested in my research."

"Ah, yes, your research," I said. "Now that you've met me and we're talking, would I maybe… be allowed to know something about that…?"

Hal tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling. "I'd have to think about it. It's not something I want getting out. The last thing I want is some big company like, say, Team Galactic trying to buy it, or even _replicate_ it…"

I folded my arms. "You don't like Team Galactic?"

"Well, it's not that I dislike _them_. It's their business model. Their sort of corporatization of scientific research. They're really strangling us independent researchers who like to do our business for ourselves."

"I'm with you on that," I said, nodding. "Before I left, Professor Rowan was saying he was interested in funding Cyrus' research."

Hal's brow hardened and his eyes moved back and forth behind his dusty glasses, like he was solving math problems floating around his head. "If that's so, he's gonna have to promise to keep this to himself."

"If you make that clear to him, I'm sure he will. Even if he thought it would be for the greater good, he'd honor your secrecy. I mean, I still don't know what it is, after all., so he's not going to tell one of the world's most famous people."

"True, very true…"

"Which, Professor Rowan trusts me, if you'd want to tell me what you're working on…"

Hal raised a finger and shook his head. "Patience, patience! My judgment is not something that processes like some sort of receipt printer. It takes time! It's like a typewriter, I guess, in that way."

"I think I understand the analogy."

"Good. I worry about my analogies sometimes."

"Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone in my distrust of Cyrus. I talked to him, actually, at the dinner in Veilstone last weekend."

"Did you?"

"Yeah. He's… kind of difficult to talk to. Very cryptic. He really believes in this 'Galactic Future' business."

"Pshht." Hal rolled his eyes, "I'll believe in the 'Galactic Future' when he figures out what the hell it's supposed to be."

I carefully leaned against the wall of the cave. "Alternative energy, right? It… has something to do with discovering clean energy, I think"

"Whatever it is, I don't trust him anywhere near my work. I'm assuming if he's researching fossil fuels, he might take some kind of interest in regular fossils. That's how I'm justifying it, anyway."

"I don't know if I agree with the logic, but I'll accept the pettiness," I said. "And, speaking of fossils, where might I find one around here?"

"Oh, uhh," he looked around the tunnel, "probably not in here. This place is just a tourist trap. It's been stripped of its fossils for _years_. You'll have to go look around on the mountain, probably. We go up there all the time. I can show you a spot, actually. There's a rock formation full of Cambrian fauna. It—I don't know how much you keep up with paleontology. How much of this is flying over your head?"

"I keep up with it well enough. I know enough to be interested in that."

"Excellent! And, if you want to know more, we do have a museum at the OPRC." Hal paused. "They don't pay me to promote it, by the way, I'm just actually this fired up about paleontology. I love dead things."

"I might stop there," I said.

"It's very thorough," said Hal.

"I'll do it tomorrow, though. It's getting kind of late."

"Yeah, you're going to need rest, especially if you're gonna be out fossil hunting all day." Hal gestured with his hands as he spoke, accidentally shining his flashlight in my face. I'm not sure if he noticed or not.

"You wouldn't happen to know of any good hotels around here, would you?"


	6. REPORT 001

_**REPORT 001, 9/23/2017 20:34 SST**_

I was undecided at first, but after thinking it over for a day, and after consulting several local folklore websites, I believe with reasonable assurance that I've had my first encounter with a Legendary Pokemon.

It is hard to describe what exactly I saw, as much of its form was partially camouflaged by the surroundings it generated. It is difficult to discern what sound the Pokemon made. I may not have even seen its true form. As such, this report will be vague in a number of regards, and, as much as it humiliates me to say, should be taken with a grain of salt.

For the sake of clarity, I encountered this Pokemon in a dream.

Under most circumstances, I would not regard an encounter with a previously unseen Pokemon in a dream as anything worth noting. However, this Pokemon, as I understand, has a history of tormenting citizens of Canalave City. The night before my encounter, I drove this Pokemon away from the local Gym Leader's family with the help of a man who claims his son was also tormented by this beast. Their respective accounts of their own torment seems to align with my own. It is for this reason that I believe this to be a previously undocumented species of Pokemon.

As best I can tell, its body was black. Flesh (assuming this Pokemon is made of flesh) billowed off of its shoulders, imitating smoke. Its head was white, and had a similar growth coming off the top of it. The creature had one blue eye on one side of its head, with no pupil. Wreathing its head was a red, jagged growth of unknown purpose. Perhaps it protects the creature's head. Its torso tapers in an hourglass shape, then radiates into a skirt-like abdomen, with a tail similar to the shoulders. Its slender arms end in three pointed fingers with no claws or fingernails to note.

I do not have much information in the way of its behavior. The Pokemon appears to be able to generate nightmares, though I am unsure of whether or not it utilizes existing thoughts in the host's imagination, or if it creates its own. The purpose of these nightmares is a mystery in and of itself. It did not appear to feed off of my nightmare at any point. Its entire purpose in attaching itself to me seemed to be to frighten me. Staring at this Pokemon induced a sort of instinctive, panic-stricken fear, in the same way that staring at a charging Rhydon might.

The dreams induced by the Pokemon felt, at times, very nonspecific to my own fears, but, at others, very. The dream began

I initially suspected it may be a Ghost type, due to its ability to inhabit the dreams of humans and its billowing morphology. However, I believe these may be examples of convergent evolution. Until more information can be gathered, I will assign it the Dark type.

After researching similar myths from the Canalave region, I have found reference to what may be this creature. These tales refer to the creature as _Darkrai._ I propose _Pitch-Black_ as the species name.

Because of its recent discovery, few definitely observable traits, and profound control over the human mind, I also propose classifying _Darkrai_ as a Legendary Pokemon. I am under the impression that what I encountered was a force of nature. Maybe I am still shaken, and maybe upon revisiting this report, I will change my mind, but as for now, I see no other logical conclusion. I look forward to peer review of my findings, and can elaborate on them if asked.

 _-Lucas_


	7. Hal's Laboratory

"How familiar are you with paleontology?" asked Hal as he scaled the hillside, a big, tan bag slung over his back. "Do you consider yourself a fan?"

I tilted my head back and forth, "I read articles, sometimes. I'm not an expert by any means, though."

"Okay," Hal said. I thought that might be all he was going to say to me until he said, "So, the rock formation we're about to visit is about 340 years old."

"Only 340?"

"Oh, jeez. I forgot the million. It's 340 _million_ years old. Anyway, during that time, early Pokémon were undergoing an explosion in diversity. Although it's usually true that the further back in time we go the less information we have, we're lucky to have a few formations like this one that are unusually abundant with fossils." Hal stopped walking and admired the view of Oreburgh from where he stood. "So, yeah, if you're going to find a fossil here, you're probably going to find one there."

I followed him further up the hill, until we overlooked Oreburgh Mine. The walls of rocks had chunks missing from them, and an area was sectioned off with yellow and black tape. Hal dropped his bag on the ground and began rifling through it. He pulled out a hammer and a chisel and handed them to me saying, "You'll want these."

I hefted the hammer a bit. It felt unbalanced. The head was too heavy. "This seems a little… brutal for fossil finding. I feel like I'll break the bones."

"Pokémon didn't have bones 340 million years ago," Hal said absently, as he pulled out equipment of his own. "That's a big reason why we don't know much about early Pokémon. Usually only the hard parts of an organism fossilize. Bones didn't really develop until a bit later. So, uh, with that in mind, your best bet for finding a fossil is going to be something like a Kabuto."

"The Pokémon with the shells, right?"

"Right. They're very common and we know a lot about them because they fossilize really well."

"But, anyway," I said, raising the hammer, "I feel like this might not be the best tool for digging up fossils."

"Oh, no, don't hit anything other than regular sediment with that. Use it to clear away some room to look for stuff. But be careful. One of our guys was using that very hammer when he smashed a fossil a few weeks ago. He blamed gravity, but I think he was just being stupid."

I looked down at the hammer and said, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

I wasn't sure what to do or where to start. Hal pretty quickly went off into his own sphere of existence while I looked around, testing the weights of the tools he'd given me. I felt like I wasn't supposed to be here. I felt like I'd be fined a million dollars if I dug anywhere. I approached one of the areas missing a chunk of dirt and swung the hammer. Chunks of earth fell away and slid to the ground. I looked over my shoulder at Hal, who was closely examining the dirt while hovering his chisel over it, ready to strike whenever he found something. I looked back at my wall of dirt and scratched my chin. Maybe I was too close to another fossil, I thought. I wandered away from Hal, keeping an eye out for unusual rocks. I wasn't sure what exactly what I was looking for.

I decided to approach the nearest slope, bash it with my hammer, and see where that got me. Nowhere. I moved a few inches to the right and tried again. I kept doing this until I found something interesting in the loose dirt. A dark, conical shape, protruding from the side of the cliff and tapering to a rounded end. I took my chisel and excavated more of it. It was segmented, each segment larger than the one before it. I separated the rock it was in from the rock around it and brought the fossil back to Hal. In all, I had three segments of some sort of small creature.

Hal turned the fossil over gently in his hands. "This is… hmm… _hmm…_ " He looked up at me. "This is really something."

"And I _am_ supposed to give that to you, for some reason, so…"

"I guess now that you've come this far, I can tell you what I'm working on that's such a big secret," Hal said as he pulled a sheet of plastic wrap from his bag. "I've built a machine that can revive Pokémon from the dead using their fossilized remains."

"… What?"

"It's pretty much exactly what I just said." Hal carefully wrapped the segmented fossil in the plastic. "It revives ancient Pokémon from fossils."

I tilted my head. "What I'm trying to say is, how is that even possible?"

"Sorry, that much is still a secret. And, no offense, but I think if I were to try to explain it, you'd be even more confused. I can show you, though. Come with me."

I followed Hal back into the city, and then back to the OPRC. He led me to a laboratory in the basement, a surprisingly organized room for someone like Hal. At the back of the room, connected to a huge monitor suspended on the wall, was some sort of device. It was cylindrical, topped with a glass dome with a slowly-blinking red light on top of it. Hal approached the device and placed my fossil on the table next to it.

"Is that the machine?" I asked.

"It sure is." Hal hastily unwrapped the fossil and pressed a button on the machine's control panel. "I worked on this thing for seven months straight. It might possibly be my greatest contribution to science, as well as one of the greatest advances ever made." He placed the fossil on the tray, and with a press of a button, the tray pulled it inside the machine. The light on top started to glow as Hal and I looked over it.

"And now…" Hal trailed off, his voice full of pride.

"And now?" I asked.

"… We wait."

I checked my watch. "How long?"

Hal shrugged. "I don't really know. We're reconstructing a living being from some rocks. It's going to take a while. You don't have to stick around, if you don't want to."

"Well, you've got me invested now. I'm not going to just leave before you can prove yourself right."

We sat in Hal's lab, Hal spinning slowly in his chair while I doodled mindlessly in my notebook. I considered letting Missy out, but the room was too small, and had too many loose papers.

"Do we have any way of knowing how complete it is?" I asked, putting my notebook in my backpack.

"Yeah," Hal said, his foot hitting the desk and stopping his lethargic spin. "There's a bar on the control panel screen that measures the revivification percentage."

I stood up and approached the machine. A rectangular bar flashed in the upper left corner of the screen. "Is it supposed to be flashing like that?"

"I thought I fixed that," he muttered. "So, I guess we _don't_ know how long we have."

I looked over the machine again, as if there were some aspect of it I hadn't seen over the last half hour. "So, the Pokémon is going to appear in this dome, here?" I asked, looking at the machinery inside.

"Yeah, it should."

"And, Pokémon from the Cambrian period all breathed underwater, right?"

"Already accounted for." Hal stirred his mug of coffee with a spoon. "I made it as a combination Fossil Reviver-Aquarium. When that boy is almost done being revived, the dome will fill with water to accommodate for him." Hal rested his chin in his palm and glanced at his monitor before saying, flatly, "So, what brings you to Oreburgh, Lucas?"

"I've never really traveled much, so I'm hiking around Sinnoh to see some sights and hopefully learn some history. I want to get in touch with the more spiritual side of things. Maybe find out where things came from."

"Well, let me know if you learn anything interesting," Hal grumbled, "I study the _history of life_ and I barely have any answers." Hal spun in his chair to face me, his hand leveled in a half-shrug. "Paleontology is a two hundred year-old science and we still have no idea where people came from?"

"I did."

"Humans just kind of… _appeared_ about 200,000 years ago. Nobody knows where we came from. We have no relatives or ancestors that we know of. And yet, we have such an intricate relationship with them. Nobody really understands it, and anyone who claims to is a crackpot pop scientist."

"How is that even possible?" I asked. "I would think that someone would have found _something_ by now."

"Right?" Hal took a sip from his mug. "We're so far removed from every other living thing on the planet. Whatever evolutionary branch resulted in us somehow managed not to leave a mark on the fossil record whatsoever. It's unprecedented. It's also one of the many scientific things I'm angry about."

"It definitely sounds like you're angry about it," I said.

"You have no idea. We're able to learn so much from fossilized remains, but at the end of the day, we can only learn so much from them, and if we don't have them, we can't do much more than speculate. Paleontology is so interesting, but so frustrating at times."

"As someone who studies Evolution with a capital E, I can relate. Nobody knows how it even happens."

"I don't know how you and the Professor can do that to yourselves. Doesn't it get boring studying something so… vague?"

"Why do you think I'm here?" I asked. "No, in all seriousness, it's… frustrating, a lot of the time. We approach it with the knowledge that we're probably never going to make progress beyond speculation."

"That sounds depressing," said Hal.

"It kind of is, sometimes. The plus side is that I get to work with Bug Pokémon pretty often, since they evolve so early. I've thought a lot about which discipline I want to go into. I had a phase were I was seriously considering observing Pokémon in the wild. But I think I want to stick with Evolution. The lack of concrete information about it is what intrigues me so much."

"To each his own, I guess."

I raised an eyebrow. "You aren't much higher up the ladder in terms of speculation versus observable fact."

"… Fair enough." Hal cracked his fingers and stared up at the ceiling. "I'm hungry. If I ordered a pizza, would you eat some of it?"

"I don't see why not. I haven't ea—" I was interrupted by the high-pitched scream of Hal's machine. The light on top was blinking, and steam filled the dome, making a sound like a fire extinguisher.

"This is it!" Hal said, rushing to the dome and peering inside. "It's happening!" I stepped up behind him, looking over his shoulder. He clasped his hands to his chest and tapped his foot, occasionally looking back at me with the widest grin I'd ever seen.

The steam cleared, and in the newly-filled aquarium swam a Pokémon unlike any I had ever seen before. It was a gray, arm-length creature covered in an exoskeleton with red markings. Solid, feather-shaped appendages lined either side of it, and it swam by wiggling them. Its eyes were two round orbs on short stalks jutting from the sides of its head. Two segmented appendages curved from its face, passively curling and releasing.

Hal scrambled to his desk and fumbled for his notebook, knocking several papers and writing utensils onto the floor in the process. He was halfway down the page by the time he returned to the machine, muttering to himself.

"What… what does this mean for science?" I asked. "This is amazing. Think of what you could do with this. Paleontology could become…"

"As deeply understood as zoology," Hal said, continuing to write with his nose still buried in his notebook. "I'm not really sure where to start, or how I'm supposed to tell my peers about this. This is an actual, living Anorith. A Pokémon that hasn't been alive for almost 500 million years, and it's swimming in my lab."

"This didn't raise this Pokémon directly from the dead, did it?"

"What? Oh, no, it couldn't do that. It created an exact clone."

"Either way, it's amazing." I watched the Anorith swim around, its feelers touching the walls of the glass dome. "And can I say that I find this little guy adorable?"

"He really is," Hal said. "We were off about some things. We didn't realize the appendages on the sides of his body overlapped one another like that. We also had no idea what his tail looked like, so this is already paying off. And remember," Hal said as he clicked the pen against his chin, "this Pokémon belongs to Professor Rowan."

I said goodbye to Hal, then left Oreburgh an hour or so later, setting out for Hearthome City. Route 207 took me through Mt. Coronet, the mountain that split the Sinnoh region in half. Much of the Sinnoh's folklore centered on Mt. Coronet. It had long been revered as a holy site, and was apparently largely hollow and filled with a complex maze of tunnels and pathways. There were several paths branching off the main route, and although my curiosity insisted on following them and getting lost, I convinced myself to listen to reason.

I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do in Hearthome City, if anything at all. I didn't know much about my destination, beyond the domed Contest Hall at the heart of the city. Dawn's mother was a renowned contest star, alongside her Kangaskhan. She'd wanted Dawn to enter the Contest scene as well, but Dawn was much more interested in making Pokémon fight than she was in showing them off.

I did know that I wanted to sleep, and that was the first thing I did.


	8. Cathedral in Downtown

I arrived in Hearthome around 2 AM the next morning. I found a hotel downtown and slept there. I had another strange dream, this one more benevolent, but just as strange. I sat on a lake with man in a purple suit. We sat in velvet armchairs on the sand, with a lamp between us. There were no ambient sounds, nature being totally still around us. I could feel a presence beyond the man in the suit, somewhere in the trees beyond the forest. The man spent a while filing his nails. Neither of us said a word until he put the file away. He asked me if it was chilly. I told him it wasn't. He then asked me, why do you expect to find your answers in a laboratory?

"Sinnoh will not reveal its answers to you so easily," he told me. "You have to learn to listen to it. You have to learn to trust it when it speaks. Your mind is sharp, but the human brain is only wired to think in one way. You cannot hope to force your own reasoning on something much more ancient than the mind itself. Your friend has learned, and although not everyone can, I sense that you may be able to."

When I woke up the next morning, I looked out the window of my hotel room. Missy was stretched out on the foot of the bed. I was surprised to see her sleeping, since Bugs don't sleep much. She usually slept for two hours, three when she was really tired, so I assumed she would be up soon. My hotel was in the center of town. Hearthome was a gorgeous, kitschy town with brown mosaic streets and warmly-colored buildings. The glass dome of the Contest Hall stretched at the northern end of town, rising above the apartments and offices.

I thought a bit about my dream. Probably nothing, although it seemed pretty on-the-nose. I'd done research in a library and spent a day as a paleontologist. So far, my methods had been strictly scientific, and now I was having a dream telling me that I'm approaching it from the wrong angle? Was it an actual sign, or was my brain just trying to rationalize my uncertainty? I decided I should also ask Dawn if she knew anything about 'listening to the Sinnoh region,' but she never seemed all that into mysticism.

I heard the buzz of insect wings behind me, and turned to see Missy lazily hovering over the bed, her head cocking and looking around the room.

"What do you think?" I asked her. "Why don't we go see what this city has to offer?"

The lights in the Hearthome Cathedral were turned off, the dark stone interior lit through the painted glass windows. My footsteps were muffled by the red carpet under my shoes. I shared the Cathedral with only a few other people, whose heads sparsely dotted the rows of pews. None of them said a word. A woman sat at an organ in the far corner of the building, playing a gentle son on an organ, the bronze pipes of which covered the wall it sat against. She paid no mind to the people behind her, lost in the music she played.

I examined the stained glass windows as I passed them. They portrayed Pokémon and humans in abstract shapes and figures. In most of the windows, they lived together in harmony, though one portrayed a white human shape holding a sword and standing before a serpentine form. I sat at the end of the pews and wrote down my thoughts in my notepad. I'd spent a lot of time wondering about the relationship between humans and Pokémon. It's most likely that humans and Pokémon are separate from one another, taxonomically speaking. Though on the surface, we aren't very different from some Pokémon anatomically or behaviorally, the building blocks of our bodies are very different from one another, and tracing a most recent common ancestor has proven unsuccessful. As I touched on earlier, some Pokémon only evolve through friendship with humans. Science has been unable to explain why this is, or what the advantage could possibly be, or even how such a development could occur in the brief timespan that humans have existed. As I once heard Professor Rowan say, there are a lot of things we still don't know about Pokémon.

"I had a feeling I would run into you here." I spun around, surprised by the familiarity of the man's voice. Cyrus sat in the pew next to me. He looked much like he had when I last saw him, wearing a dark suit with a teal tie, the Galactic yellow 'G' pinned to his lapel. His face was difficult to discern in the dim chapel lights, but I could see the outlines of his grim expression.

"Oh. Hello, sir," I said. "I… can't say I expected to see you here."

"You shouldn't have" He stared ahead in silence for a moment, then said without turning back, "Sit."

I did, pulling my backpack from my shoulders and placing it at my feet. I was unsure of what to say to him, so I remained silent.

"Do you know why this chapel was built?" asked Cyrus, his voice a drone.

"It represents the bond between humans and Pokémon, right?"

"Essentially, yes. According to tradition, the ground Hearthome was built on was a meeting place for humans and Pokémon. It was a bridge, of sorts, between the two. This chapel was built to honor those who congregated at that place."

"That's fascinating," I said.

"It is certainly an interesting fable. There's something charming about how easily fooled we used to be."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there is no historical record of humans and Pokémon meeting here before there was a city."

"Regardless, the fable did a lot to shape the culture around here."

"Hm. It certainly did. But was it necessary? Do we really have any need for tradition?"

"I think it's a vital part of the human experience," I replied.

"The human experience should be separated from the collective, don't you think?"

"The collective?"

"Why do you let your time as a human be defined by the thoughts and judgments of others? Of some nebulous crowd you can never please?"

"Are you saying you don't?"

"I define my experience by what I do on my own. I have no time for the collective. This society isn't mine. I'm only concerned with history as I've experienced it, which began at my birth."

"I see." I scratched behind my ear before returning my hand to my lap. "Why do you run an energy company if you're only interested in yourself, then?" I paused. "I'm not trying to be vindictive. I'm legitimately curious."

He sighed quietly to himself. "I live on this planet, too," he answered. "And if I have to mobilize others to make the world a better place, then so be it."

"I guess you aren't hurting anyone in doing so."

He nodded, and I tried once again to read him, to see some trace of humanity etch itself into his features, but with no success. I couldn't read him, no matter how hard I tried.

"I'm about to do something,' he spoke. "Something that will change the world."

"Has Galactic made a breakthrough?"

"We have. It will be quite revolutionary. That is all I can be certain of." I wasn't sure what to take away from the statement. Either he'd solved the energy crisis, or he'd figured out the key to world domination. It wasn't helped by the fact that Cyrus was impossible to read. I tried not to worry too much about it. Even if my worst fears were right, there was nothing I could do to stop him.

"I'm glad to hear the fundraiser paid off," I finally decided to say.

He nodded in reply. "It has occupied my thoughts for the past few days," he said, drumming his fingers on the seat of the pew.

"If I didn't know any better—and please, excuse me if I'm out of line—I would say that you seem a bit nervous."

I'd hoped for a glare when he turned to look at me, a frown or even a hardened brow. But his expression didn't change. "I have no time to be nervous. Not when my work is as serious as it is."

"Right." I cleared my throat and didn't press the issue any further.

"What brings you so far from Twinleaf?" Cyrus asked a moment later.

"I'm studying mysticism, pretty much. Traveling across the region and trying to get in touch with the history of it all."

"I did something similar when I was a younger, different man," said Cyrus. "It did very little to satisfy my anxiety regarding the unknown. I sought answers to the questions of the beginning and after the end. The sorts of questions others do not like to dwell on."

"Everyone likes to think they think more about life's big questions than the people around them," I said.

"Maybe so. But I thought about those questions only because they haunted me. I set out on my journey in hopes they would be satisfied, and I failed to find an adequate answer."

"Do those questions still bother you?"

"No," he said firmly. I knew the conversation ended there, when he abruptly stood and said, "Don't let this conversation discourage you. I found my answer eventually."

"It didn't discourage me," I said.

"Did you ever tell me your name?" Cyrus asked.

"It's Lucas."

He closed his eyes and dipped his head. "Goodbye, Lucas," he said before disappearing down the aisle. After a few moments of contemplation, I left as well.

I went to the Pokémon Center and called the professor, who had picked up where I had left off with my Burmy observation.

"Hello, Lucas!" he said. "Have you been well?"

"I have. I'm calling you from the Hearthome City Pokémon Center."

"Hearthome, eh? Entering Contests?"

I laughed. "I considered it, actually. I'll be honest, though, my journey's gotten kind of… aimless? I'm not sure where to go. I'm considering Solaceon, since it's the nearest city, but I don't have much reason to go there. Any thoughts?"

"Yes, actually. If you head down towards Pastoria City, Dawn and I will be there tomorrow to study the Pokémon in the Great Marsh."

"Oh, really? What brings Dawn out there?"

"She's finally working on filling her Pokédex," he answered with a wink. "I think you would like the Marsh, Lucas." He turned to the Burmy hanging in front of him and wrote something on his clipboard. "There are a lot of Bug Types there. It seems like your kind of city."

"I'm not doing much else," I said. "I'll be there."

"There's a fair bit of natural history in the area as well. I don't think it would be a waste of your time. I'll see you there." He reached toward the screen, and the video ended.


	9. Fear the Future

"Excuse me," I said.

The nurse looked up from her issue of _Chansey Fancy_ , pink curls bobbing as she moved her head. "Yes? How can I help you?" She spoke with a bit of a twang.

"If I wanted to get to Pastoria City from here, what would be the quickest route?"

"Hmm." She dog-eared her page and closed her magazine in her lap. "You're actually pretty close. Just take 212 south and then east. It's right along the main road. Careful, though, it's pretty much straight swamp for most of the way." She looked down at my shoes. "You might get stuck, wearing those shoes."

"Thanks," I replied, "But I'm a little pressed for time."

The nurse shrugged, "Shouldn't be too bad, then, just don't go mucking around in the mud or anything like that. Have a nice day, honey." With that, she unfolded her magazine and buried her nose in it once again.

I let Missy out of her Poke Ball and started on my way down Route 212. We passed an old mansion surrounded by a gated brick wall. There must have been a party or ball or something, because people were lined up out front in sparkling dresses and expensive-looking suits. From there, the scenery transitioned into foggy swampland. This region had apparently been wetter in recent years, since the incident in Sootopolis City. Global climate had been interrupted by warring, ancient Pokémon that had been awakened by dueling eco-terrorist organizations. Thanks to the time zone difference between Sinnoh and Hoenn, I'd been asleep as it had happened. The climate had been knocked just a little off-kilter in some areas, including the Sinnoh region. Winters grew colder, the summers more mild. The southern parts became muggier and rainier, with the water level rising in Pastoria by a few inches. This harmed the people more than it did the Pokémon. Bug-Types found on Route 212 and in the Great Marsh had been growing slightly _bigger_ , since the thicker atmosphere had come to accommodate them. As a result, Pokémon like Croagunk and Quagsire had more substantial meals and were beginning to grow larger themselves.

Rain started to fall not long into our journey east. Heavy, pelting rain. I pulled my jacket up over my head to shield myself from the downpour. The sky was dark, and I couldn't hear anything over the sound of rain pelting against the ground. My feet kept getting stuck in the mud and I could barely see a few feet ahead. I soon had to return Missy to her Poke Ball. In the wild, she'd have to take shelter in rain like this anyway, and she clearly wasn't enjoying herself.

I'm not sure how long I struggled through the bog before coming across a lone cabin in the middle of it all. I could barely make out the shape of the roof in the sheet of rain enveloping me. I took a moment to duck under the roof and dry off. I was no stranger to rainy weather, being from the Sevii Islands, but this rain was cold. I shivered on the porch of the cabin, hoping not to be chased off by whoever the cabin belonged to. I tried to dry myself off, but every inch of my clothing was soaked through.

I heard the door creak open beside me. I looked up to see a woman with a black bob haircut sticking her head out from behind the door.

"Hi there, traveler!" she shouted over the rain. "Wet out here, huh?"

I nodded miserably. "It's bad."

She tilted her head towards the wall, "Why don't you come in while this blows over?" She looked out at the rain, observing silently for a second. "It shouldn't go on much longer. I can get you a towel, help you dry off."

"I'd appreciate that," I said. "Thank you." I stood up and walked inside. My host was nowhere to be seen. She had a modest little place. One central room, with a bed in one corner, a TV in the opposite one. What caught my eye was the kitchen table, which had four jars standing in a row, filled to varying degrees with shards of a different color in each one: Red, green, blue, yellow. Behind the table, a shelf lined with Technical Machine cases of the same colors. I took a seat at the table and watched the TV while I waited for her.

The woman appeared from the bathroom a moment later with a towel in her arms. "Can I get you anything else while I'm up?"

"No, thank you," I said, taking the towel and running it over my hair. "I'm Lucas, by the way."

"Sharon," she said.

"What do you have going on here?" I asked. "With the jars?"

"Oh, it's a little side business of mine." Sharon sat down at the opposite end of the table, behind the jars. "People find these Shards and trade them in to me, I give them one of my TM's in exchange."

"That seems a little unfair on your end, doesn't it?"

"I have so many of these TM's." She rolled her eyes. "I helped _develop_ these TM's back at my old job. Seriously, I can practically get them for free. And I make jewelry out of the Shards, so I'm making a profit."

"I see."

"Speaking of which…" she pushed the red jar towards me, "You don't happen to have any, do you?"

"Oh, no, I'm not really an adventurer. I'm just on my way to Pastoria to see some friends."

"Oh, okay. No worries." She pulled the jar back to its original position. "Do you get to Pastoria often?"

"I've never been," I said. "And really, the second farthest I've been from Sandgem since I moved here."

"Oh, you're not a native either?"

"No, I'm from the Sevii Islands. I moved here when I was ten."

"Ooh, it seems so lovely down there."

"It is during the winters. It's ridiculously hot during the spring and summer. But, I can definitely say that I miss the simplicity of living on island time, you know?"

"Oh, I wouldn't know anything about that," she said. "I lived in Fortree City, worked in the Weather Institute just off the 119."

"That would explain the TM's."

She smiled and gave a slight nod. "Yeah, so I pretty much moved from a rainy forest to a rainy swamp. If anything, it's quieter here."

"Sinnoh is nice, though," I replied. "I appreciate the feeling of living in such a big region. I feel like I see so many more people here. There's more freedom here, too. You can't travel very far on Six Island before needing to take a boat."

She leaned forward in her seat, supporting herself with her arms on the table. "Oh, god, I feel that too, kind of. Half of Hoenn is ocean. I have a cousin who lives in Sootopolis and it's _so_ expensive to visit her."

"It's not fun, is it? Imagine having to take a boat to go _anywhere_."

"I can't even begin to," she said. "Do you still visit, ever?"

"Oh, yeah, my parents live there, still. I visit once or twice a year."

"That's fun." Sharon pulled her shoulders together and looked down at the table,  
"I don't get out to Hoenn much anymore."

"That's a shame."

She shrugged. "I did everything I wanted to do over there, and I haven't regretted moving. I'm happier here."

"Oh, then, that's good."

"Yeah, it's a really nice change of scenery, and I love the Pokemon who live around here. I throw some of my scraps out for the Woopers who live in the pond out back."

"Oh, I love Woopers!" I said. "I didn't know they lived around here."

"They do! They like to burrow under the mud and hide from people, so you have to look carefully. And watch your step! Don't hurt my babies!"

I laughed a bit, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Good," Sharon said, the corner of her mouth turning up a bit. She looked out the window. "It looks like the rain is letting up a bit. You can probably head out soon. Can I get you anything for the road?"

"No, I think I'll be okay," I answered as I pulled my damp jacket off the back of my chair. "Pastoria is nearby, right?"

She nodded. "Oh, yeah. You're almost there."

"Thanks for having me. I'm a lot drier than I would have been."

"Of course! And keep me in your thoughts if you ever find any Shards!"

I made it to Pastoria after a forty-something minute walk east. The sky still spat the occasional raindrop, and water dripped from the roofs of buildings. Pastoria was a tourism-driven town, and it showed. The city was decorated with posters of the Pokémon found in the Great Marsh, with fun facts about said Pokémon and the Great Marsh's address on the bottom. I followed the signs to the north of town, to a brick, domed building painted with a Pokémon mural.

I walked inside. The floor was made of blue-and-white checkered tile. A cafeteria lay beyond the reception desk, and the recently unhidden sun shone through the glass dome in the ceiling. Beyond the cafeteria, large double-doors leading outside, to the Great Marsh itself.

I walked into the cafeteria to be hailed by a familiar voice, "Lucas! Hey!" I followed the voice, finding Dawn and the Professor sitting at one of the tables. Dawn's had her hand raised, a smile across her face. "It's about time you got here!"

"Sorry," I said, "I got caught in the rain." I walked to the table and took a seat.

"Yeah, sheesh, I can tell. You look like you need a hairdryer." She reached for her bag, "You want mine?"

"I'm fine," I said on the off chance she wasn't joking.

"Are you hungry?" she asked through a mouthful of fries, pushing her cafeteria tray towards me. "I got too much food. The burger is mine, though."

I took a fry from the tray. "Thanks." I looked up at Professor Rowan, who was typing on his laptop, completely unaware of our conversation. "So, professor, how was your trip down?"

"It wasn't very bad," he said. "I managed to get here an hour or two before the rain started."

"That's good to hear," I said. "I'm glad one of us was lucky."

"I got here forever ago," Dawn said. "I took a nap in my hotel room, then I went and got some stuff at the Poke Mart." She looked at both of us, then said, "Sorry for butting in. I'm just really excited."

I raised a hand up, "Don't worry about it."

"How has your journey been, Lucas? Have you been learning much?" asked the Professor. He looked up from his laptop for this, folding his hands in front of the keyboard.

"It's been slow-going since Canalave. Although, Hal's…" I leaned in, "… research was _really_ interesting."

"I heard he got it working. Why don't we discuss this later?"

"Of course," I said. "I went to Hearthome after that, as you know. I ran into Cyrus in the cathedral downtown."

"Ah, did you? How was he?"

I shrugged, "I… don't know."

The Professor tilted his head. "You didn't talk much?"

"No, we did."

He pondered, "… Ah." He cleared his throat. "I think you'll find the Great Marsh interesting, if you liked what you saw in Oreburgh. I'm sure you know that Yanma is a living fossil."

"Effectively unchanged for almost three-hundred million years," I finished. "Except that it actually got bigger."

Dawn looked up from her burger. "Wait, really?"

Professor Rowan nodded. "Fossilized remains of Yanma's ancestors are essentially the same as their modern counterparts. Only smaller."

"Huh." Dawn knit her brow for a second and then returned to her burger.

"I think you'll find the Great Marsh interesting, Lucas." Professor Rowan addressed me again. "Have you considered adding any more Pokemon to your collection? If so, this would be the place to do so."

"No," I said. "I'm fine with just Missy. I'm not responsible enough to handle more than one Pokemon. And, you know, Bug-types are low-maintenance. I think that's the only reason I've managed to take such good care of her."

"Dawn isn't responsible enough, but she still manages it."

Dawn laughed for a moment before pausing. "Hey…"

The Professor smirked. "I—"

He was interrupted when the double doors leading to the Marsh swung open. An unusual-looking man burst through them, arms wrapped tightly around a plastic bag. His hair was fashioned in a neon turquoise bowl cut, and he wore a gray outfit similar to a spacesuit.

He stopped in the middle of the cafeteria. Everyone gave him a wide berth as he shouted, "Get back! I have a bomb and I'm not afraid to blow this place up!" It was then that I noticed a detail of his jumpsuit. On his chest, unambiguously, the yellow Galactic 'G'.

Security guards came through the doors next. He turned, hugging the package tighter, and shouted, "Stay back! I'll set this thing off. I'm not kidding!" The security guards backed away slowly as he bolted for the door.

Dawn was off her feet in a second, her tray clattering on the floor tile. She chased after the man with the bowl cut, a Poke Ball in her hand. I followed after her, out the door and into the streets of Pastoria. He'd disappeared into the crowd.

Dawn muttered a curse, looking down the street both ways. She spat, "Do you see him?"

I glassed the crowd. He wasn't hard to find with his hair.

"There he is!" I shouted, already chasing after him. I wasn't sure if Dawn heard or not, but I had no time to check. I sent Missy out, shouting, "Keep an eye on the guy with green hair!"

Her wings buzzed as she sped into the air, hovering above the man as he shoved his way through the crowded street. I followed, throwing in an _excuse me_ or a _pardon me, so sorry_ wherever I could. The man with the bomb looked over his shoulder, making fleeting eye contact with me before his eyes went wide with panic and he turned around and scurried faster.

Questions raced through my head, questions I couldn't wrap my head around. Was this a move on Team Galactic's part, or was it just a deranged employee? Why was he wearing that outfit? The outfit. The Galactic logo looked like it was sewn onto the outfit. He was either dedicated to sabotaging the organization, or he was a part of it. How far did this sect of the organization go? Was I right not to trust Cyrus?

And then, onto the practical. The now. Was Dawn behind me? Where was the Professor? I didn't see him leave when we did. What was I going to do when I actually caught up to the man with the bomb? Would he kill me? Would he kill both of us? Was I making a fatal mistake, here?

I kept chasing him, and I wasn't sure why. He ducked into a park and shouted obscenities at the bystanders until they backed away.

My opportunity to do something. I shouted, "Missy!"

The man with the bomb turned in the direction of my voice and threw a Poke Ball. A Croagunk came out, its orange cheeks inflating and deflating with each breath. A low, deep croak accompanied every exhale. It crouched in front of me, displaying its toxic fingers.

A warning sign, usually, but more likely a threat.

I backed away as Missy whipped around and lashed out with a Sonicboom. The Croagunk sprung from its crouch and jabbed a hand toward my Pokemon's attack. Its hand caught the shockwave and a wave of energy radiated from the impact. My hat blew off and caught in a bush. Missy looped in the air and rubbed her mandibles and beat her wings, creating a stomach-churning sound. Supersonic. I covered my ears, as did the man from Team Galactic. His Croagunk's eyes widened and it stumbled backwards. It caught itself with a hand, preparing its other hand to strike at Missy. It swung at nothing, stumbling forward as Missy hit it with another Sonicboom and it fell to the ground, unconscious.

The man in the space suit returned Croagunk to its Poke Ball and turned to run. I thrust a finger toward him and ordered Missy to stop him. She dive-bombed, hitting him in the back and knocking the paper bag into the grass.

I walked around him and knelt next to the bag and began opening it up.

"You're naïve," spat the man with the green hair. "You, and that girl, and that dusty old bastard you call a scientist."

I ignored him, pulling open the bag and removing its contents.

"The future is coming, kid, and it belongs to Team Galactic. Whether you like it or not. You already lost."

A light, egg-shaped mass of duct tape. I shook it cautiously and glared at the man who'd been carrying it moments before.

A smirk twisted across his face. "Welcome to tomorrow."

An explosion and a wave of heat behind me. I leapt to my feet and spun around on my heels to see a pillar of smoke rising above the Great Marsh.

Dawn ran into the park, coming to a stop and locking eyes with me, her jaw dropped.

"Go!" I shouted. "Get back to the Marsh!"

She turned and bolted in the other direction without saying a word.

The police arrived shortly after. I returned to the Great Marsh and found a portion of it on fire. Two deaths and seven injuries, three of which placed the victims in intensive care. There wasn't much I could do to help, so I returned to the Pokémon Center and watched the news. Everything had changed. My worst fears were apparently realized. The grunt who had blown up the Great Marsh was acting out of the organization's interest, not out of his own. Team Galactic had pulled all of their websites and public information. The employees in Veilstone barricaded themselves inside Galactic Headquarters, besieged by the police. Cyrus had vanished, leaving the following PR statement:

 _All,_

 _The future I want, as I have come to learn, will not come easy. It is impossible to create in the world as I know it. I do not expect anyone to love me for what I have done. These deaths are on my hands. I am aware of this. I would not have killed if I were not aware of the burden implicit in such an act. This was a necessary sacrifice. Team Galactic is no longer the organization it once was. We are everywhere. We are across the street. We are in your schools. We are an invincible force for permanent change, in a world where change does not come peacefully, and we will no longer hide. Do not challenge us. You cannot win. Thank you._

 _-Cyrus_

The sliding door to the Pokemon Center opened and Dawn walked in. Her gait was tight and grim. Her entire body was tense as if she were holding her breath as she stormed past me to the PC. She hit the keys with heavy fingerfalls and a trio of Poke Balls appeared on the tray next to the monitor. She put them in her bag and started to walk by again.

"They're gonna pay," she said without looking at me.

"Don't over-exert yourself," I said.

She looked over her shoulder at me with a glare that could have reduced me to a pile of ash. "I know what I'm doing. Things aren't the same anymore, Lucas. I'm not gonna sit around and let this happen again. I'll kick every single one of their asses if I have to and no one can stop me." She turned away from the PC and started to walk out of the Pokemon Center.

"Cyrus disappeared," I said.

"He's the ringleader," she said. "Environmentalism was a front for…" she made an ugly sound with her throat, "whatever the hell they're actually planning. It doesn't matter, though. I'm gonna end this thing by sunrise."

Dawn left and I followed her outside. ""I don't think it's a good idea for you to do this while you're still so angry."

Dawn pulled a Poke Ball from her bag and looked into the sky. "News flash, Lucas! Team Galactic isn't gonna wait around for me to stop being angry!"

"I'm going to go to the beach on the Valor Lakefront," I said. "At least come sit with me for a while."

"I'm fine," she insisted. She tossed the Ball into the air and Salamence sprung from it, spreading its scaly red wings under the lowering evening sun. The Pokemon dove towards Dawn and she jumped on its back and she was gone.

I went to the beach alone. The sun was setting in the west, and to the east I could see the faint glow of Sunnyshore. I sat on the shore, my arms crossed over my knee. I dug my shoes into the damp sand and looked out over the ocean. Fish occasionally leapt from the surface of the water, and a few Wingulls lingered, searching for one more meal before returning to their roosts.

" _Things aren't the same anymore, Lucas."_ I thought about Dawn's words. I turned them over in my head again and again. I wanted to feel clever about predicting Cyrus' betrayal, but it was hard to feel good about myself when his underling had tricked me so easily; a mistake that had gotten people killed.

I heard footsteps in the sand behind me. I turned to see Dawn, also looking out over the water, arms crossed. "Hey," she said.

"You're still here?"

"Came back." She trudged to my side and sat down a few feet to my right. "Wanted to make sure my head was clear before I left." She drew anxious lines in the sand with her index finger. There was unease crawling all over her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I could have done more to help."

"It's not your job," Dawn said. "You're a scientist. You did more than we could've asked you to. Honestly, it's a miracle you didn't get hurt."

"I still could have done more."

"No, you couldn't have. You didn't know the bomb was back at the Marsh. And again, you're just a scientist with one bug." She tilted her head. "I don't mean that to be a jerk, by the way."

"I get it."

"So yeah. Leave it to me, and the Four, and everyone who has the training for this kinda stuff. Okay?"

I nodded.

"Cool."

"Is the professor…?"

"Hurt? No. He's about as mad as I am, though."

I sighed, relieved. "And what about the Great Marsh?"

A cloud came over her face. "Could be better. Area 6 took most of the damage, and it was a _lot_. They were still putting the fires out when I left. I don't know if anyone passed away. I've been trying not to look just yet."

I nodded and changed the subject. "So, what happens next?"

"We hope we stop Team Galactic before they kill more people, or do whatever they're trying to do. And we find Cyrus. Easier said than done," she sighed.

"Is there any way I can help?"

"By staying out of it. Keep doing what you've been doing. You've helped enough." She paused. "I appreciated the help, by the way. Sorry if that wasn't really clear."

"Thanks," I said.

"Where are you headed next?"

"Eterna, I think. I need to go somewhere peaceful for a few days."

"Oh, why not go to Floaroma? It's a little farther from here, but it's smaller and it's _so_ pretty this time of year!"

"How much further?"

She leaned over and showed me her Poketch. She pointed to a square to the north of Jubilife. "It's right there." Her finger moved to the right a bit, "And Eterna is there. So, like, if you wanna go to Eterna after all, it's right through the woods."

"Good to know," I said.

Dawn stood up, her boots slightly sinking into the sand. "I'm gonna head out now, if that's cool."

"Don't let me keep you," I replied. "I guess I'll see you… eventually?"

"Eventually, yeah." She smiled before jumping on her Salamence and flying off.


End file.
